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Abbott History

Abbott
Implementation

WHOLE SCHOOL REFORM IN ABBOTT DISTRICTS

Background Paper

In its May 1997 decision, the Supreme Court accepted
the State's Core Curriculum Standards covering seven academic subjects
as the definition of what students need to learn as the result of the "thorough
and efficient education" that our State Constitution promises
them. A year later, in their recent decision, the justices strongly
endorsed "whole-school reform" as an approach that can enable
students in the 28 Abbott school districts to reach those goals.

In arriving at its decision, the Court directed the
Department of Education to study all of the various approaches to improving
the academic achievement of students from low-income families. Based
on its extensive review of programs and research across the nation,
the department proposed "whole-school reform" as being far
and away the most effective approach.

The Supreme Court appointed a Superior Court judge,
aided by a nationally recognized expert, to hold hearings on the department's
findings. Through these extensive hearings, the department's research
was thoroughly scrutinized, the opinions of other experts were solicited,
and urban school improvement efforts throughout the nation were reviewed.
Opponents of the department's proposals were rightfully given every
opportunity to challenge them with contradictory evidence.

Based on the hard evidence produced by this exhaustive
process, the Supreme Court accepted the department's recommendations
and ordered the implementation of whole-school reform in all elementary
schools in the Abbott districts.

What will a school look like after it has implemented
this approach?

Essentially, whole-school reform combines into a single
program all of the individual educational practices and strategies
have been shown over the years to be the most effective in enabling
disadvantaged students to achieve. Therefore, the different whole-school
reform packages developed by various experts have common basic elements.
Yet they differ in their details and emphases. Therefore, the best
way to describe whole-school reform is to use one package as an illustration.

The best documented whole-school reform program, and
the one the department prefers, is the Success for All/Roots and
Wings (SFA/R&W) program developed by Johns Hopkins University.
When an elementary school in one of New Jersey's Abbott districts adopts
SFA/R&W, it will implement the following specific measures.

The school will be led by a strong, committed and
effective principal. Because research has shown that such leadership
is an important determinant of children's academic success, the Department
of Education and the district central office must and will take whatever
actions are needed to assure that it exists in the school.

Parents and teachers will be involved in key decisions
concerning the school's program and budget. Specifically, a School
Management Team, comprised of parents, teachers and administrators,
will be empowered to make key program, staffing and spending decisions.
Both research and practical experience show that parents and teachers
can productively be involved in making such decisions. And they must
be involved in order for children to achieve academic success.

The New Jersey Abbott school that adopts the SFA/R&W
package will provide its students with a safe, disciplined environment
conducive to learning. Secure facilities with adequate security staff
will be provided. A code of student conduct will be clearly defined,
presented to teachers, parents and students, and consistently enforced.

All students will begin their education early. They
will be provided half-day preschool at ages three and four, and full
day-kindergarten at age five. Emphasis will be placed on laying the
foundation for the development of reading and language skills.

There will be a concerted program to enable each student
to read at grade level by the end of third grade. This will mainly
involve regrouping the students in small classes across grades according
to their current progress for a daily 90-minute reading period. Certified
tutors who understand the reading program will be available from the
start to make sure each child keeps pace.

Students in all grades will receive instruction in
a challenging Roots and Wings curriculum aligned with the State'
standards in seven academic subjects. Classes will be of an appropriate
size. Teachers will use proven methods of developing students' subject
knowledge, computer skills, and high-level thinking and problem solving
skills, as defined by the standards.

So teachers can concentrate on teaching, the school
will have the services of a Family Support Team comprised of a counselor,
social worker and school nurse. This team will help promote parents'
involvement in the school and identify children and families with health
or social problems that inhibit learning. The support team will either
assist these students and families directly or refer them to other
agencies better equipped to address their problems.

Before the program is implemented, the school staff
will be trained in their roles and in the SFA/R&W methodology,
and they will receive extensive training continuously thereafter. The
school will have a trained facilitator, a staff member with the expertise
to help teachers and other staff to implement their respective parts
of the program.

The school's entire operation - instruction, management,
parent programs and student services - will be supported by sophisticated
technology. It will have a technology coordinator who will oversee
the placement of computers and help the staff use them effectively
to enable students to achieve the standards.

The school will adopt a goal of implementing these
various programs and strategies so effectively in the early grades
that it can avoid or minimize the practice of later pulling students
out of the educational program for special education or remediation.
SFA/R&W calls this preventative approach "neverstreaming."

The school will also participate in an accountability
program. It will set specific goals for student achievement of state
standards, measure students' performance against those goals, and be
rewarded based on the results.

While other whole-school reform models differ in their
details and emphases, all will include the same basic elements as the
SFA/R&W model.

Some additional observations need to be made about
what else whole-school reform means in general terms.

First, it means that in order for the reforms to succeed,
attention must be focused primarily on the school level. The task must
be seen as one of rebuilding each individual school, one by one, from
the ground up, with the participation of the principal, teachers, parents
and students of the school.

Second, whole-school reform means that in order to
achieve full academic benefit, the elements described above must be
implemented as interrelated parts of a comprehensive program. Those
elements cannot be treated as a menu from which the school may choose
some and not others, as has been the common practice. In order to maximize
gains in student performance, the school has to implement all of
the elements.

Third, whole-school reform must actually be reform.
The essential components are not "extras" to be added onto
whatever the school is already doing. Ultimately, they must replace
those existing practices that may not be effective.

Fourth, therefore, the main financial task in implementing
whole-school reform is to combine all of those district resources and
use them to create a budget for each individual school. That budget
must be sufficient to support the elements of the school's whole-school
reform program, and the school must be able to use it for that purpose.

The concentration of all available resources to support
a single strategy, called "zero-based budgeting," is an essential
part of whole-school reform. Zero-based budgeting is not just a matter
of fiscal efficiency. Instead, it is educationally necessary
that resources be allocated and reallocated at the school level to
support a single reform strategy.

Individual schools will have the opportunity to demonstrate
the need to retain existing practices as well as the need for additional
resources. However, the ability of whole-school reform to enhance student
achievement will be diminished if existing resources are used to support
disparate conflicting practices - in fact, that would not even be whole-school
reform. That is why the Supreme Court stated in its decision that, "consistent
with zero-based budgeting, the Commissioner may, before seeking new
appropriations, first determine whether funds within an existing school
budget are sufficient."

At the conclusion of the hearings on the Department
of Education's proposal, the Court appointed expert stated in his report
that "the approach taken by the State, if fully and faithfully
implemented, would represent the cutting edge of re-engineering school
finance to the purposes of standards- and school-based reform." The
Superior Court judge who conducted the hearings stated, "This
court strongly endorses the concept of whole-school reform with the
presumption in favor of.SuccessforAll. In sum,
this court agrees with the State's overall approach for educational
and financial reform attheschoollevel." Finally,
the Supreme Court concluded, ".the evidence in support of the
success of whole-school reform encompassing SuccessforAll is
impressive. In summary, and consistent with this position, we determine
and direct that .the commissioner implement whole-school reform."

For the first time in more than a quarter century,
there is consensus on an approach that clearly has demonstrated great
potential to provide the state's poorest school children with the kind
of education they deserve.